The Federal Government says the Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari will never engage in a frame-up of innocent citizens but only the guilty needs to be worried
The Minister Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this in a statement issued in Lagos on Friday.
Mr Mohammed was apparently reacting to allegation of plot by government to frame him up in a statement issued by his Media Aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, on Friday.
But, the Minister replied, “This administration will never engage in a frame-up of innocent citizens. That is neither in the character of President Muhammadu Buhari nor in that of his administration.
Only the guilty should be worried. To paraphrase an African proverb, a man who has no wife cannot lose an in-law to the cold hands of death.
”The administration is also strongly committed to the tenets of democracy, including freedom of speech and the right to dissent.
“But we understand that those who, in their time, were untethered to those principles would find it hard to believe,” the minister said in the statement made available by his Special Adviser, Segun Adeyemi
The minister stressed that while those who have skeletons in their wardrobes should be afraid, even of their own shadows, innocent persons need not worry about any investigation, whether real or imagined.
Mohammed said it was curious that the frame-up and witch-hunt allegations came a day after a major presidential proclamation reversing some past acts of injustice was made.
”Apparently, the impact of this proclamation was too much to bear by those who, through acts of omission or commission, helped to deepen the wounds inflicted by the blow of injustice that followed an election that was widely acclaimed to be free, fair and credible,
“Hence, they felt the need for a red herring that will distract the nation.
”Added to that is the frustration brought about by the fact that the contraption they have so much hyped as a freeway to power has failed to gain traction.
“Faced with this double tragedy, even the strongest of men may begin to succumb to a figment of their imagination.
They may start crying wolf where there is none,” he said.
The minister said that the Administration will not be distracted by frivolous allegations from any quarter.
He said the administration is too busy trying to clear the mess of 16 years and build on its unprecedented achievements over the past three years.
Mohammed stressed that the government would not waste its energy and time on framing up anyone or dwelling on issues that are not grounded in fact.
He said the unprecedented achievements of the Buhari Administration were also enough to cause sleepless nights, with the attendant symptoms that include phantasm, for those who had better
opportunities to make the country great but floundered on the altar of narcissism.
